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Half-Giant
Half-Giant (Sub-Race) Created by T.A. Saunders ©2012 v1.0. Racial Summary Average Height: Around 10 feet tall for males and nine feet and five inches for females. Average Weight: Five hundred and fifty pounds for males and four hundred and thirty pounds for females. Features: All combinations of hair and eye color are possible, but giants are always pale-skinned. Languages Spoken: Hidulan or Kashalan, Dwarvish, Northlandic and the Common Trade Tongue. Racial Age Limit: Roughly 200 to 250 years, though some have been known to live as long as 300 years. Racial Nick Names: Ogre, Oaf, Brutes. Appearance The appearance of a Half-Giant depends largely on his or her parents. If one of the parents was a Plains Giant (by far the most common sort of Half-Giant) then they will bear moderate resemblance to said parent, with scraggly and often excessive hair, over-sized jaw and a sloped forehead on both men and women that promotes the dullard stereotype that most take them for. If the parent was a much rarer Kashalan then they will be much more refined in appearance, beautiful even by most standards, with intelligent, expressive faces and gentle curved frames on the women and strong, powerful frames on the men. Racial Abilities and Limitations Racial Abilities Ground Stomp: Causes those 10′ around the Half-Giant to fall to the ground (disrupting spell-casting 65%) Heroic Feats of Strength: Able to bend, break, smash or crush even highly durable materials (50%). Inherit Knowledge of Magic (Kashalan Half-Giant Only): A Kashalan Half-Giant intuitively knows how to use magic by force of will (Asyndi Method), giving +15% to Arcane and Mystic spellcasting and a +10% bonus to Magic Research and Enchanting. Inherit Knowledge of Weakness (Hidulan Half-Giant Only): A Hidulan Half-Giant can gauge an enemy and find a weakness in their defense while still having their own daunting defense. (+15% to melee and ranged attack checks, -10% armor rating bonus). Legendary Durability: All Half-Giants gain a -25% armor bonus versus all forms of attack. Devastating Attack: All Half-Giants engaging in melee, whether it be with fists or a weapon are more likely to hit, due to sheer size (+15% to melee attack rolls). Racial Weaknesses Passionate Spirit: All Half-Giants are easily swayed by emotions, making them vulnerable to certain kinds of mental attack. (-10% to mind control attempts). Oops!: Half-Giants are not especially able to handle fragile and small things, due to their strength (15% chance to accidentally break a small or fragile object). Unavailable Classes Mostly depending on the racial background of the Half-Giant in question, no Hidulan Half-Giant can be a Mage or a specialized Mage (including Necromancer, Illusionist, etc.) and no Kashalan Half-Giants will be willing to pursue a priest or choose to be either a Crusader or a Reaver because of their agnostic beliefs. Lore Birth of Sin: The History and Culture of the Half-Giant It is often postulated as to why a giant would take a smaller humanoid. In the extremely rare case of the Kashalan (Mountain Giants), it is almost always an act of love…or in the very least, passion while ‘in disguise’ as one of the smaller races, using sorcery. The truth of this is always revealed and the warning that the child can never set foot in the mighty city of the Kashalans, Jhormdir. Such half-breeds are considered perverse abominations and put down immediately, as are the parents of such children. The more common (and unfortunate) coupling occurs most often with Hidulan shaman, who can wield rituals that can make them smaller, but not disguise their true nature. Then they will take their wont from the victim by force, though there have been episodes where smaller races have willingly coupled with a Hidulan, for either bribe or other mutual gain. The very birth of a Half-Giant can be fraught with tragedy. Very often if the mother is of a smaller race, there is a 20% chance she might actually die giving birth and that percent jumps to 50% if the mother has the horrible misfortune of having twins. If the mother is the giant, there is a 20% the child is stillborn, though no further complications will exist if there are twins. Because of this high mortality rate, Half-Giants are the rarest of the half-breed races and perhaps one of the most reviled by all races. In most examples, Hidulan Half-Giants are shunned by both smaller races and their giant kin, making life growing up difficult at best. Often taught to hate society, most of these Half-Giants become xenophobic loners with a propensity towards violence. In the case of Kashalan Half-Giants (who are often called Ogre Magi for their innate skill with sorcery), there is at least a better chance for loving parents and a chance to grow up as well-read and educated as their giant parent. These Kashalan giants know themselves to be outcasts for making the choice to sire a halfbreed child and will often never return to Jhormdir in favor of raising the child away from their utopian society. While still tending to be loners and having little faith in the structure of society, they tend to be a bit less violent than their low brow kin. Beyond this, there is not much written history or culture of the Half-Giant race. With over 75% of their kind being of the Hidulan sort, they roam the cold north and find a cave or a ruin they can call their own and protect that home and the territory around it with vicious tenacity. It is from these Half-Giants that most tales of ogres come from and their behavior does nothing to dispel these stories. Some are known to become adventurers, or sidle up with Masoq, who cow to a properly aggressive Half-Giant. The other 25% of course being Kashalans, who usually end up either finding a ruin they then restore, or find a place within some of the more forward-thinking cultures, such as the Quar`Vess Asyndi of Farwind. A few of these magic-minded Half-Giants become adventurers as well, though it is most often with a purpose in mind. Category:Races